TEAM BIOJody was a sniper for the Canadian forces, and while on duty in Afghanistan in 2007, he stepped on a land mine and lost both his legs below the knee. After an extraordinary recovery, Jody was running 5 km charity runs in a little over a year on his new prosthetic feet. “It’s obviously going to be a challenge,” Jody says of his prosthetics, “but we’re going to have to overcome that with determination.”

Cory was by Jody’s side during his recovery and then relocated to Alberta to take a job five years ago. The distance has been hard on the brothers and they’re looking forward to re-establishing their strong bond. “We’ll rely on each other to get the job done,” says Cory. “Our interaction will probably be laced with a lot of bleeps for the viewers at home, and comic relief, also quite a bit of fireworks,” says Jody.

Within a few months of returning home, Jody was reunited with one of the medics who evacuated him from Afghanistan. The two are now common law partners of five years and have two beautiful girls together. With the birth of his first daughter, Jody vowed to always strive to be a better person, someone his daughter would look up to and be proud to call Dad.

Motto: “They are the enemy and we shall destroy them.”

How will they plan to win The Race: Focus, hard work, calculated risk.

Number one roadblock as team: “Being patient and bringing the intensity down a little bit from red line.”

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

The depth of that adoration almost gave the show’s executive producer John Brunton a nervous breakdown. In all, more than 20,000 people from across Canada sent in audition tapes when CTV announced it was searching for nine two-member teams to compete in the show’s inaugural season for a grand prize worth $500,000.

“We were just blown away,” says Brunton. “The response was about 10 times bigger than what we had imagined. I think that speaks to the huge fan base there is for the program, and what an appetite there was for us to make the show available to Canada. “There was a pent-up hunger for it.”

While the process of winnowing down the list was daunting and time-consuming, Brunton said selecting Team Mitic was a no-brainer. “Those two brothers represent something very, very special,” he says.

In their audition tape, the pair promised to bring “lots of bleeps, comic relief and fireworks” to the race.

Cory said they delivered on all counts. “People are in for some entertaining TV,” he predicts, laughing.

He said spending 24/7 with Jody, who lives in Ottawa, strengthened their already-strong bonds, but it also gave him a deeper appreciation of the challenges his older brother faces every day.

In 2007, Jody, now 36, was a master sniper with the Canadian Forces on deployment to Afghanistan. While on patrol, he stepped on an explosive device and suffered catastrophic injuries, losing both of his legs below the knee.

“I had a moment, well, more than a moment, really, where I was pretty angry (when I heard the news),” recalls Cory. “I think it was about five or six hours later I was watching the news, and was reminded that soldiers were coming back, dead. It wasn’t a rare thing, either; it seemed like every week or every other week soldiers were flown back in a coffin. And that wasn’t going to be the case for Jody. He was alive. He was still here.

“I knew he was strong-minded and physically fit. And I knew it was something we could get through.”

Cory was living in Toronto at the time and spent countless hours by Jody’s side during his recovery and rehabilitation. A year later, the brothers took part in a five-kilometre charity run together, after Jody was fitted with his prosthetic feet. Cory flew back to Toronto specifically to attend the event; by then, he had moved to Edmonton to take a job as a labour relations officer with the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.

He said going into the race, the pair had a motto, one that had served them well during Jody’s recovery — never quit.

Their biggest challenge was keeping on top of potential skin breakdown issues caused by Jody’s prosthetics.

“Something quite small could end up being pretty big if we weren’t careful, especially when you’re on your feet so much and running so hard.”

They bickered occasionally — they are brothers, after all — but they always made sure to focus on the task at hand, while still taking the time to cherish what they knew was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“During the race, I was constantly thinking: ‘Is this really happening?’ It was pretty hard to believe, actually. We felt very fortunate to be picked as a team.”

Brunton said the Canadian version essentially follows the same format as its Emmy-award-winning counterpart in the U.S., with the requisite U-turns, road blocks and fast-forward passes. In a uniquely Canadian twist, however, Olympic gold medallist and host Jon Montgomery will also participate, demonstrating some of the daring challenges the racers will have to face. Teams will have criss-crossed 23,000 kilometres of the Canadian countryside by the time they cross the finish line.

Filming took place in May, when it was still winter in the far north.

“One day we were up to our eyeballs in snow and two days later we were experiencing 80-degree Fahrenheit weather,” he says, laughing.

He says viewers will see teams travel through urban centres as well as to the most remote outposts in the land, all while exploring the country’s broad cultural and ethnic diversity, wildlife and iconic landmarks.

There is already talk about the possibility for Season 2, Brunton says, which may take teams to the South Pole, through the Americas and back to Canada. Or, perhaps through the Commonwealth countries, from India to parts of Africa.

“There are a lot of exciting possibilities for the future,” says Brunton, “but for the first season we decided to wrap ourselves around the flag.”

Cory, meanwhile, along with his new-found friends from the recent ball tournament, plans to meet at the Central Social Hall (10909 Jasper Ave.) to watch the first episode. Anyone is welcome to join them, he says, although he admits to being more than a little nervous.

“I don’t know to describe it. I’m kind of uneasy, but not in a bad way. It’s going to be strange to watch myself on TV, and especially to see how they edit it. There are nine teams, and it’s an hour-long episode.

Jody and Cory Mitic wish they would’ve won “The Amazing Race Canada” but are consoled by the fact they’ve been able to inspire so many people along the way.

The brothers came in second place on Monday night’s finale, behind father and son team Tim Hague Sr. and Tim Hague Jr.

Both teams overcame adversities along the way – Jody lost both of his legs below the knee after stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2007 and ran the “Race” with prosthetic feet, and Tim Sr. was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago.

“How many people are going to have Parkinson’s and go, ‘That guy’s winning The Amazing Race? And he has Parkinson’s? Why am I not out doing things?’” says Jody, who adds he has received a lot of e-mails from people who have told him they are ordering running feet or a running leg and want to run with him.

“There’s so many people who are getting to do good things now because someone is setting an example so that consoles me a little bit. It helps me put things in perspective.”

Even though the team arrived at the final Roadblock challenge in Toronto in second place (behind Vanessa and Celina), Cory struggled with the task that required matching all the flowers and flags to the provinces and territories they had visited along the way.

“It was rough. The way it worked is if you got one wrong they wouldn’t tell you that you got nine right so you’re second guessing even the ones you got right,” says Cory.

Each of the greeters at the Pit Stop had worn their respective province or territory’s flower and each of the flags was printed on the clues at the beginning of the leg, but Jody and Cory admit they didn’t anticipate a memory challenge of this sort.

“Cory did study the flags and I know the flags, we studied the order of the prime ministers, we studied different geography and the order Confederation came together but we never touched on flowers until we were in Newfoundland,” says Jody.

The team was still feeling confident they could pull it off when Tim and Tim arrived after them but that all changed when Tim Sr. finished the task on the second try and headed with his son to the Pit Stop.

“When they left and Cory came out I was like, ‘Dude they’ve only been gone 15 minutes let’s go, we’re going to catch them and then it’s go to the finish line’ (so) we still held out hope.”

But when they arrived at Olympic Island via a ferry, with Vanessa and Celina right behind, Tim and Tim had already crossed the finish line.

“When we lost, I was doing my best to think, it’s awesome we got to second and everything, but it’s like being the guy on the podium with the silver medal,” says Jody.

“Except we don’t get a medal,” adds Cory with a laugh.

“We’re proud to be there but we wanted the gold,” says Jody.

They may not have won the top prize, but the brothers have gained something else – a chance to spend time together as Jody lives in Ottawa and Cory moved to Edmonton five years ago for work.

“We were always close . . . but spending that time together, we talk on the phone every other day now and that wasn’t happening. It’s a big change,” says Cory.

“His work is so busy and I’m trying to live my life and be a dad and find a new job and reinvent myself because I tell everyone the day I stepped on the bomb, that guy is gone . . . but one thing we always talked about as kids is we should work together.”

The two now have plans to do their own television show.

“Doing (the ‘Race’) together now, we’re like ‘let’s work together now, let’s do this.’ We’ll make a company called ‘Team Mitic’ if we have to. We pitched a show and we’ll see how it goes,” says Jody.

OTTAWA — Master Cpl. Jody Mitic, a top sniper who lost his legs to a Taliban bomb in 2007 only to return home and run marathons on prosthetics, now intends to run for city council in Innes ward.

The high-profile candidate who lives in the ward was decorated with the Sacrifice Medal after his legs were blown off while he was on patrol in Afghanistan in January 2007. Since he returned home, he has helped to launch the Never Quit Foundation, which raises awareness and money for wounded soldiers, police officers and medics.

Mitic, 37, and his brother Cory were fan favourites last summer on CTV’s Amazing Race Canada, which had more than three million viewers an episode. They finished second.

Mitic, a father of two young girls, has been active in his community and spends his free time researching municipal issues.

He intends to register his nomination papers after he receiving a medical retirement from the Canadian Forces later this year. He said made the decision after discussing it with his wife, Alannah Gilmore, a Canadian Forces sergeant and battlefield medic who helped to save his life.

“I miss soldiering, but I see this as a way of continuing my service,” Mitic said Monday. “Instead of a national service, it’ll be a local service. It’ll give me a chance to serve the community.

“It would be a massive duty and honour to represent this community,” he added. “When I’m given a job to do, I take it very very seriously, and I never give up.”

Mitic has been meeting with some city councillors and civic leaders in recent weeks and has been getting good reviews in city political circles.

“I don’t mind being the new guy and I’m not afraid to ask questions. But right now, I’m listening to the people’s concerns and preparing,” said Mitic.

The decorated soldier will be facing some competition of his own making.

Innes contender Roland Stieda told the Citizen recently that it was a conversation with Mitic that helped Stieda decide to run.

He met Mitic, a motivational speaker, through last year’s “human library” program, an event that lets participants “check out” people and ask them questions about their lives.

“Just talking to him, and just hearing his story and how he decided that he wasn’t going to let the loss of his legs stop him and he was still going to move forward, it struck a nerve with me.”

Mitic welcomes the competition, saying the race only gets better with more contenders.

And if the new political candidate is looking for media quotes for campaign brochures, he won’t have much trouble, what with a Citizen editorial that said he had the strength and hope that embodied Canadian legend Terry Fox.

Innes Ward has long been held by the popular Rainer Bloess, who announced recently that he’s retiring from politics.

Jody Mitic, top sniper who lost legs in Afghanistan and near-winner on Amazing Race Canada, takes aim at political office

Army snipers, even more than paint store employees, are colour experts. Of all the visual clues that will help a sniper distinguish a tree from a bush from, say, a Taliban fighter hiding behind said tree or bush, colour is key. It is what the human eye naturally looks for.

And so naturally, if you are looking to hide, you don’t wear bright colours. But if you are looking to stand out, you do.

Jody Mitic wore a lot of camouflage during his time as a Canadian army sniper team leader in Afghanistan. Lately, however, his uniform consists of black pants and a canary yellow shirt, worn beneath a canary yellow windbreaker.

Mr. Mitic — Canada’s most famous sniper, he lost two legs in Afghanistan then became a celebrity with his near-win on last year’s Amazing Race Canada — now wears the eyeball-attracting outfit every day, after washing it every night. He was thusly dressed at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, as he stood at a rainy crossroads in Ottawa’s east end waving to drivers during their morning commute.

“Being a sniper, we live by the way things are seen,” says Mr. Mitic, formerly Master Corporal Mitic, now retired, and now a Ward 2 candidate for Ottawa city council in the upcoming Ontario municipal elections. “Yellow stands out quite well against the background of any other lawn signs, and any other thing that you might see around it.

“People have been rolling down their windows and saying, ‘Go Team Mitic,’ so I guess the yellow is having the desired effect.”

Or perhaps candidate Mr. Mitic is having a desired effect, since he is out there, everyday, waving at cars in the wee morning hours before meeting people at coffee shops and retirement homes and at their front doors, to ask for their vote. The 37-year-old “never quits,” which is a personal motto. But he also never imagined becoming a politician. He was an army careerist. A sniper, through-and-through, right up until the moment he stepped on a Taliban mine in 2007. Mr. Mitic lost his right foot and, ultimately, his left. He learned to walk and even run again on carbon-fibre prosthetics and returned to work at the Department of National Defence, developing programs for wounded veterans, and publicly advocating on their behalf.

It was great, but: “Staying in uniform meant no promotions, limited employment and doing a desk job,” Mr. Mitic says. “To me, soldiering is done on your feet, and I eventually accepted that my days of soldiering had come to an end when I stepped on that bomb. I’ll always be a soldier at heart. That won’t change. And despite what people think about politicians, politics is another form of public service — and I wanted to serve for my whole life.”

Picking off bad guys in Afghanistan is a rare and refined skill. Municipal politics, meanwhile, is messy and fought at close range, in meeting rooms and in committees and through council debates. Candidate Mitic, however, views his past career as ideal preparation for what he hopes to be the next one. As a sniper team leader, he worked with Americans and Brits and Canadians. Different nations had different approaches and, at times, competing needs. But the end goal — to make things better for the Afghan people —was shared. Isn’t making things better for your community the bottom line in local politics?

“It is about working with people,” says Mr. Mitic, father of two young girls.

To that end, the candidate for Ward 2 wants to transform the area — already full of young families — into a more family friendly place by refurbishing the local arena, opening a new library branch and adopting a traffic plan that cracks down on drivers that speed through the area. It is a message Mr. Mitic delivers door-to-door, six hours day, knocking and, hopefully, talking.

The canary yellow jacket makes him hard to miss, while his celebrity — with a small “c” — does sometimes precede him. The sniper and his younger brother, Cory, finished second in the Amazing Race Canada scavenger hunt, winning over fans by refusing, even when afforded the opportunity, to punish their rivals by sending them on wild goose chases. The clue cards in the show are, yes sir, canary yellow.

Behind Team Mitic is Alannah Gilmore, the candidate’s wife and confidante. The combat army medic was one of the last Canadian faces Master Corporal Mitic saw before he was evacuated from the battlefield in Afghanistan.

He didn’t see her again until several months later at a bar near the base in Petawawa, Ont.

“Alannah kind of appeared out of the darkness,” Mr. Mitic says. “So I reached out and grabbed her arm to get her attention and, being the feisty lady she is, she cocked her arm back to tell me what she thought of that.

“But then when she saw me, she said: ‘Jody.’

‘‘If it wasn’t for that bomb, I wouldn’t have my kids, or my family, and I definitely wouldn’t be a candidate for Ottawa city council. When that bomb went off, a new path opened for me.”

It has led him to the crossroads of Ottawa’s east end, on a rainy morning, where the ex-sniper greets his neighbours with a smile and a friendly wave, instead of a salute.

“We used to have a saying in the army, ‘If it’s not raining, we are not training,’” he says, laughing. “You do whatever it takes.”

New councillor Jody Mitic named Ottawa’s first sports commissioner! By Lucy Scholey

Ottawa could host an Ultimate Fighting Championship if Jody Mitic has his way.“It’s no secret I’m a massive UFC fan,” said the new Innes ward councillor, who was officially appointed to the new role as sports commissioner in a council vote Wednesday.Under the voluntary title, Mitic will be tasked with traveling across Canada to attract big sporting events such as the NHL Classic to the city.It’s a big job, but Mitic says he will enlist other councillors and staff to help him out.“We’re talking about sports here, which is about teams. So it’s a team effort, I think,” he said. “It’s a brand new position, something that needs to be established, get its traditions, get its standard operating procedures in place and I don’t see it as a single person’s job to decide what sports to bring to Ottawa.”Apart from the UFC, Mitic says he wants to see more soccer and baseball events, plus para-athletics sporting events like the Sledge Hockey World Championships.A proposed new NHL arena at Lebreton Flats could help him in his pitch to other sporting events, he said.“We could become a real hockey town again,” he said.Mitic, an Afghan war veteran who lost both his legs in a landmine explosion, made headlines when he participated in the Amazing Race Canada with his brother Cory and when he ran the Achilles 5 km on prosthetic legs.Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said Mitic is the right fit for the role because of his “incredible life story and interest and passion for sport.”“He understands that… sport tourism is one of the growth industries in our city,” said Watson. “The more events we can attract like the Briar and the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the figure skating championships, the better it is for the economy."

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan